Right Here

Lumen Therapy Collective, WPKN
  • 4.8 (9)
  • Mental Health

Right Here is a mental health podcast that explores the psychological patterns shaping our relationships, choices, and inner lives. Hosted by therapists Christopher Mooney, LCSW, and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW, each episode offers grounded, compassionate conversations rooted in clinical insight and real human experience. No jargon. No judgment. Just clear, thoughtful dialogue designed to help listeners better understand themselves and the people around them.

  1. 1d ago ·  Video

    The Need to Be Right

    Have you ever been in an argument and realized you’re no longer trying to understand the other person—you’re only trying to win? Maybe the disagreement started over parenting, politics, money, work, or something as small as how the dishwasher gets loaded. But somewhere along the way, it stopped being about the actual issue and became something bigger: Do you respect me? Do you think I’m stupid? Are you dismissing what I know? In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the need to be right—and why disagreement can feel so personal. They look at what can sit beneath defensiveness: competence, respect, control, justice, and identity, along with earlier experiences that may have taught us that being wrong is dangerous, humiliating, or unsafe. The conversation also breaks down how a simple difference of opinion can turn into a fight: the body gets activated, listening disappears, defensiveness takes over, and suddenly the original issue is replaced by a need for validation. Sometimes you can be factually right and still end up relationally nowhere. Chris and Kenyon talk about the difference between being right and being understood, why validation is not the same as agreement, and how curiosity can keep a disagreement from becoming a battle. They also offer practical ways to slow things down, identify what you’re really protecting, separate intent from impact, and pause without abandoning the conversation. The goal isn’t to stop having your own opinion. It’s to stop treating every disagreement like something you have to win.

  2. Oct 5 ·  Video

    The Myth of Closure

    “I just need closure.” We say it after breakups, friendships that fade, family estrangement, betrayal, loss, or any ending that leaves us with unanswered questions. We imagine closure as one final conversation—the explanation, the apology, the truth, the moment someone finally understands what they did to hurt us. But sometimes that conversation never comes. And even when it does, it doesn't always give us what we hoped it would. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore the myth of closure and what it means to move forward when an ending stays unfinished. They unpack why uncertainty is so hard to tolerate, why we often confuse closure with validation, and how our peace can become dependent on someone who may be unable, unwilling, unsafe, or simply unavailable to give us the resolution we want. The conversation also looks at what we may actually be grieving: not just the person or relationship, but the future we imagined, the version of ourselves we were in it, the belief that things would eventually get better, or the person we kept hoping someone would become. Chris and Kenyon close the episode by offering practical ways to begin creating your own closure—recognizing patterns even when every detail is missing, naming what you were hoping to receive, deciding whether contact would truly help, and creating rituals that don’t require the other person’s participation.

  3. Sep 26 ·  Video

    Taking It Personally

    They didn’t text back. My boss sounded annoyed. My partner seemed distant. And suddenly your brain has written an entire story: They’re mad at me. I did something wrong. I’m too much. I’ll never be enough. Taking things personally often happens in the space between what actually happened and the meaning we assign to it. An unanswered text becomes rejection. Feedback becomes failure. Someone else’s bad mood becomes evidence that we’ve done something wrong. But an interpretation isn’t necessarily a fact. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore why ambiguity can feel so uncomfortable, how rejection sensitivity and past experiences shape the stories we tell ourselves, and why an unclear moment can quickly become a verdict about our worth, competence, or belonging. The conversation also offers a simple way to slow the spiral: separate the event from the story. What actually happened? What meaning did your mind add? And what are two other explanations that could also be true? Alternative explanations aren’t about pretending everything is fine—they’re about refusing to judge yourself on incomplete evidence. Not everything is about you. But the feelings that get brought up are still real. The work is learning how to stay curious long enough to find out what’s actually true.

  4. Sep 19 ·  Video

    The Avoidance Loop

    “I just need to figure out exactly what to say.” Sometimes the hardest conversations are the ones we’ve already had 50 times (in the shower, in the car, at two in the morning), but never with the actual person. We rehearse every possible version, predict what they’ll say, plan our response, and tell ourselves we’re preparing. But often, the rehearsal itself becomes another form of avoidance. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW explore why we avoid the conversations we know we need to have—especially when we care deeply about the relationship. They unpack how temperament, early experiences with conflict, people-pleasing, and our nervous systems can teach us that disagreement means danger and staying quiet means safety. The conversation also looks at what avoidance actually costs. Staying silent may reduce anxiety in the moment, but the issue rarely disappears. Instead, resentment builds, small behaviors start carrying more meaning, and distance grows around something the other person may not even know is wrong. Chris and Kenyon offer practical ways to interrupt the cycle: notice what you’re protecting, put limits around the rehearsal loop, separate fear from fact, and stop waiting for the perfect script.  Because sometimes you don’t need a speech. You just need one honest sentence.

  5. Sep 12 ·  Video

    Attachment Styles 101

    Few things can activate us faster than feeling someone pull away—or feeling someone get a little too close. Those reactions can seem irrational in the moment, but they usually aren’t random. They may be part of an attachment style: a pattern we learned early on for managing closeness, distance, safety, and connection. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW break down the four primary attachment styles—secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized—and explain where they come from, how they show up in adult relationships, and why they’re better understood as survival strategies than personality flaws. The conversation explores the classic anxious-avoidant dynamic, what happens in the body when our attachment system gets activated, and why one person may reach for reassurance at exactly the moment another person wants to retreat. Christopher and Kenyon also discuss how greater awareness, safer relationships, therapy, and small changes in how we respond can help us move toward a sense of earned security. You didn’t choose your attachment style. But you can change your relationship to it.

  6. Sep 4 ·  Video

    Micro-Regrets Aren't Failures

    “I wish I had texted back.” “I wish I had said no.” “I wish I had spoken up.” Most regrets aren’t dramatic. They’re tiny. The friend we meant to call back. The boundary we didn’t hold. The apology we keep meaning to make. The night we spent scrolling instead of resting. But those small “I wish I had…” moments can quietly pile up until we start turning them into much bigger stories about ourselves, like I never follow through. I’m a bad friend. I always get it wrong. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW unpack what micro-regrets are, why regret is different from disappointment or shame, and how these seemingly small moments can point toward the things we actually value—connection, rest, honesty, courage, presence, and self-respect. The conversation also explores how to stop treating regret like a punishment and start using it as information by identifying what you actually regret, noticing the value underneath it, and deciding whether the next step is to repair, redirect, or release. You don’t have to redeem your whole past or endlessly replay everything you wish you’d done differently. Sometimes, one small regret can simply show you what you want to do differently next time.

  7. Aug 27 ·  Video

    Fine Is Not a Feeling

    “How are you?” “I’m fine.” It might be one of the most automatic exchanges we have. But what does "fine" actually mean? Sometimes it means we really are okay. Sometimes it means we don’t have the time, energy, or desire to explain ourselves. And sometimes, “I’m fine” is covering up exhaustion, sadness, loneliness, fear, overwhelm, anger, or feelings we haven’t stopped long enough to identify. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW unpack why “fine” can become an emotional defense, and how our instinct to keep things light can leave us disconnected from ourselves and other people. The conversation also explores the middle ground between undersharing and oversharing: pausing long enough to notice what we're actually feeling, replacing “fine” with something slightly more honest, and using what a “fine plus” response to crack the door open without ripping it off the hinges. Vulnerability doesn’t have to mean telling everyone everything. Sometimes, connection starts with being a little more accurate about how we’re actually doing.

  8. Aug 21 ·  Video

    Self-Care Is Not a Prize

    Self-care has been sold to us as candles, spa days, vacations, and “treat yourself” posts. And while all of that can be lovely, it can also make self-care feel like something decorative, expensive, or earned only after we have done enough. But most people aren’t walking around saying they need more luxury. They’re saying they can't remember the last time they had a good night’s sleep, or exercised, or said no. Many of us feel guilty for resting, and we don’t know what we need until we're already overwhelmed. In this episode of Right Here, hosts Christopher Mooney, LCSW and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW talk about self-care without the marketing. Not as a lifestyle brand, not as self-improvement homework, and not as another way to criticize yourself, but as basic maintenance for your body, mind, relationships, and boundaries. They explore why real self-care is especially hard for overfunctioners, parents, helpers, and anyone who learned that their worth comes from what they do rather than who they are. The conversation looks at why care often gets postponed until collapse, how “enough” becomes a moving target, and why small repeated actions usually matter more than big, dramatic overhauls. Christopher and Kenyon also offer a simple four-part frame for real-life self-care: body care, mind care, relationship care, and boundary care. That might mean getting more sleep, taking a ten-minute walk, sitting without your phone, reaching out to someone honestly, or practicing the sentence, “I can’t do that right now.” Because contrary to what social media might have you believe, self-care isn’t glamorous. Nor is it a prize for good behavior. This episode invites you to reimagine self-care as an everyday act. Because you're allowed to be a person—not just a producer, a parent, a helper, or the one who keeps the ship from sinking.

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Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Right Here is a mental health podcast that explores the psychological patterns shaping our relationships, choices, and inner lives. Hosted by therapists Christopher Mooney, LCSW, and Kenyon Phillips, LMSW, each episode offers grounded, compassionate conversations rooted in clinical insight and real human experience. No jargon. No judgment. Just clear, thoughtful dialogue designed to help listeners better understand themselves and the people around them.

Information

  • Creator
    Lumen Therapy Collective, WPKN
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Right Here
  • Show Website
    Right Here